European Economy

Teacher(s)

Vannoorenberghe Gonzague;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

The first part of the course is an introduction to the European institutions and basic statistics that impact on the economics policies that have been adopted. The introduction ends with an analysis of the European budget. The second part examines the objectives of the main European economic policies, the micro- and macro-economic instruments used within these policies and their degree of coordination.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The objective of this course is to provide students with a frame of reference of European realities so that they can understand the nature of European Economics, the particular related issues and the economic policies that have been adopted. This framework should enable them to examine critically the nature of the hypotheses within the theoretical models elaborated in the specialist courses (International Economics, Work Economics, Regional Economics, Industrial Economics etc) and to judge their relevance in understanding and implementing European policies.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

This course focusses on the European Union and on the European Economy. While the European union today is already quite a well-integrated market, the integration process has been a steady one and is not over yet.  The European customs union formation resulted in an strong increase in internal EU trade and boosted welfare for most countries. The well-functioning of the Eurozone is heavily dependent on whether Europe can be considered an optimal currency area. This is a set of conditions that need to be fulfilled whenever a number of countries decide to give up their national money and have a common one where they give up the right to exercise an independent monetary policy. This course discusses the European integration process and the euro formation from an economic point of view. Also the challenges that Europe is facing will be discussed using an economic framework.

Teaching methods

lectures in class and assignements

Evaluation methods

written exam after lectures

Other information

a course in micro- economics is a good preparation for this course
communication between professor and students goes via the electronic platform icampus. You should enroll in the course to have access to the online documents such as course notes and slides that will be posted.

Faculty or entity

ESPO